By Steve Hubrecht
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The provincial government announced restrictions last week aiming at curbing the rising number of COVID-19 cases in B.C.
The restrictions were announced on Friday, Dec. 17 and will be in place until the end of January, making this the second Christmas and New Year’s Eve with tightened protocols for British Columbians. The new rules come as the Omicron variant spreads.
The measure getting the most media attention thus far limits indoor personal gatherings — such as Christmas dinners and New Year’s Eve parties — to immediate households plus 10 individuals. Other restrictions include limiting venues of 1,000 or more people to a maximum of 50 per cent seated capacity, the cancelling of all sports tournaments and events, diners at restaurants being required to remain seated, and organized New Years Eve events becoming seated-only, with no mingling or dancing.
Here in the Columbia Valley, Invermere mayor Al Miller noted that “from a local perspective, we are in reasonably good shape,” pointing out that the valley has few venues with capacity of 1,000 people, “so that particular restriction doesn’t affect us as much as other parts of the province.”
In terms of the household gathering limit, Miller said “we just have to roll forward with caution to get through this. We can’t take chances. There is a lot of frustration, and the past nearly two years have taken quite a toll on people’s mental health. But I’m happy that the restrictions are at least not as tight as they were last Christmas. That was really tight, with immediate households only. I know there will be some large families that will have to change or cancel their Christmas gathering plans, but hopefully the household-plus-10 limit will satisfy most Christmas gatherings.”
